The road to 50 states was littered with wannabes who couldn’t wait to declare themselves—but never quite got to full statehood. Here are 12 states that could have been.
1. Franklin
Wikimedia Commons
After the Revolutionary War, it became common for states to gift their westernmost lands to the newly-founded (but broke) American government to repackage and sell [...]

JOHN ANGELILLO/UPI/Landov
The decision to scratch and retire I’ll Have Another with swelling in his left front leg on the day before the Belmont Stakes cost him a shot to become the 12th Triple Crown winner, but owner J. Paul Reddam still stands to make millions in stud fees. While the three-year-old colt would likely [...]

The entire town of Buford, Wyoming, is for sale. Despite what the picture shows (it’s from 2006), there is only one resident. Don Sammons is retiring, so several buildings, ten acres of land, a zip code, and a high-altitude view are all going on the auction block. Bidding will start at $100,000, which sounds like [...]

Back in the 1960s and ‘70s, William Taliaferro Close was the personal physician of President Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire. He was also the chief doctor of the army. When the President reportedly fled to France when Ebola threatened to spread across Africa like wildfire in 1976, Close remained to help contain the horrible disease. [...]

Be thankful that you don’t live 50 million years ago, or you’d have to use a baseball bat instead of a shoe to kill this ant:
A winged ant queen fossilized in 49.5-million-year-old Wyoming rock ranks as the first body of a giant ant from the Western Hemisphere, says paleoentomologist Bruce Archibald of Simon Fraser University [...]

The iconic “Mudflap Girl”, long seen on America’s highways, finally has an identity. Ed Allen of Washington, D.C. says that it’s his mother. Allen’s father, a trucker, kept a photo of his wife wearing a swimsuit in his rig:
Dad kept the photo in the cab of his truck, which always bore his wife’s name on [...]

Wyoming-based photographer Tristan Greszko created this epic tilt-shift video of a Jackson Hole ski resort. As you watch the clip, keep in mind that those Lilliputian specks are actually real skiers …
Hit play or go to Link [Vimeo] – via Wired

Tonight at Madison Square Garden, Alabama will take on Wichita State for the National Invitation Tournament title. You might not realize it today, but the NIT wasn’t always an afterthought. Let’s take a look at how the New York tourney was eclipsed by the NCAA.
Few collections of letters arouse mixed emotions in college hoops fans [...]